The Parole Board for England and Wales () was established in 1968 under the

Criminal Justice Act 1967 The Criminal Justice Act 1967 (c 80) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Section 9 allows uncontroversial witness statements to be read in court instead of having to call the witness to give live testimony in the courtroom, if ...

. It became an independent executive

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...

(NDPB) on 1 July 1996 under the

Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c.33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights, clamping down on unlicensed r ...

. The Parole Board is governed by the Parole Board Rules 2016 made by Parliament under the

Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (c. 44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is a wide-ranging measure introduced to modernise many areas of the criminal justice system in England and Wales and, to a lesser extent, in Scotland a ...

. Parole Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Justice, but are required to take judicial decisions independent of Government. The Parole Board's role is to make risk assessments about prisoners and to make a binding direction to Government about whether prisoners are released into the community on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

. The Parole Board must also give advice to Government when asked, most often about whether offenders are ready to be moved to open prisons from the closed prison estate.

Responsibilities

The Parole Board must act in accordance with the type of sentence levied.

Indeterminate sentences

These include

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

prisoners (mandatory life, discretionary life and automatic life sentence prisoners), His Majesty's Pleasure detainees, and prisoners given indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP). The Parole Board also considers whether prisoners are safe to release into the community once they have completed their tariff (the minimum time they must spend in prison) and also whether the Secretary of State is justified in recalling them to prison for a breach of their life licence conditions (the rules which they must observe upon release).

Determinate sentences

These include discretionary conditional release (DCR) prisoners serving more than 4 years whose offence was committed before 4 April 2005, prisoners given extended sentences for public protection (EPP) for offences committed on or after 4 April 2005, and prisoners serving standard determinate sentences who have been recalled to prison after being released on licence. The Parole Board considers whether these prisoners are safe to release into the community once they have completed the minimum time they must spend in prison and also whether the Secretary of State is justified in recalling them to prison for a breach of their parole licence conditions (the rules which they must observe upon release).

Hearings

The Parole Board holds two types of hearings.

Oral hearings

These normally take place in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

. The panel is chaired by a suitably accredited, trained and experienced Parole Board member. In most cases, there will be three Parole Board members on an oral panel, although the composition of the panel may be fewer when decided by the Parole Board. Where the circumstances of the case warrant it the panel will include a psychologist or psychiatrist. In addition to the prisoner and the panel, others who may be present include the legal representative of the prisoner, together with a public protection advocate representing the Secretary of State and the victim(s), and witnesses such as probation officers, prison officers, psychologists and psychiatrists. The victim might also be in attendance at the beginning of a hearing in order to present their victim personal statement. Oral hearings are used to consider the majority of cases where an

indeterminate sentence Indefinite imprisonment or indeterminate imprisonment is the imposition of a sentence by imprisonment with no definite period of time set during sentencing. It was imposed by certain nations in the past, before the drafting of the United Natio ...

prisoner is applying for release and also for some cases involving both determinate and indeterminate sentences where a prisoner is making representations against a decision to recall them to prison.

Paper hearings

Parole Board members sit in panels of one, two or three to consider cases on the papers and each member contributes to them on an equal footing. Any type of member can sit on these panels. The panel takes a considered decision on the basis of a dossier that contains reports from prison staff and the probation service as well as details of the prisoners' offending history. The dossier also contains a variety of formal risk assessments based on offending history, behaviour in prison, courses completed and psychological assessments. The dossier may also contain a

victim impact statement A victim impact statement is a written or oral statement made as part of the judicial legal process, which allows crime victims the opportunity to speak during the sentencing of the convicted person or at subsequent parole hearings. Overview One ...

or a victim personal statement. Paper panels are used to consider the majority of cases where a determinate sentence prisoner is applying for parole and also for the initial hearing for all cases where a prisoner has been recalled to prison.

References

External links

Parole Board for England and Wales
{{Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom) 1968 establishments in the United Kingdom Government agencies established in 1968 Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government Penal system in England Parole